“In the house, fixing the kitchen sink.” A brisk breeze was sweeping down the mountains from the west and Maxine thought it odd that Pitt was carrying his Windbreaker over his right hand and arm. “Just go on in.”

Lee Raferty was sitting at the kitchen table, filing burrs from a length of plumbing pipe. He looked up as Pitt entered.

“Mr. Pitt. Hey, sit down; you’re just in time. I was about to open a bottle of my private stock of grape squeezin’s.”

Pitt pulled up a chair. “You make wine as well as beer?”

168 VIXEN 03p>

“Gotta be self-sufficient up here in the high country,” Lee said, grinning, and pointing a cigar stub at the pipe. “Take this. Cost me a fortune to get a plumber up here from Leadville. Cheaper to do it myself. Leaky gasket. Any kid could fix it.”

Raferty laid the rusty pipe on an old newspaper, rose from the table, and produced two glasses and a ceramic jug from under a cupboard.

“I wanted to talk with you,” Pitt said.

“Sure thing.” Lee poured the glasses to their brims. “Hey, what do you think about all that commotion up at the lake? I hear tell they found an old airplane. Could it be the one you was askin’ about?”

“Yes,” Pitt answered, sipping from the wineglass, which he held in his left hand. He was mildly surprised to find the wine quite smooth. “That’s part of the reason I’m here. I was hoping you might enlighten me as to why you murdered Charlie Smith.”

The only reaction was the slight lift of one gray eyebrow. “Me … murder old Charlie? What on earth are you talking about?”

“A falling-out of partners who thought they’d discovered a pot of gold deep in a mountain lake.”

He stared at Pitt and tilted his head questioningly. “You’re talking like a crazy man.”

“The last thing you expected was a stranger appearing on your doorstep asking questions about a lost airplane. You’d already made a mistake by not disposing of the oxygen tank and nose gear. I pay homage to you and your wife’s theatrical talents. I swallowed your country-bumpkin act with all the gullibility of a tourist. After I left, you covered my every move, and when you saw me dive in the lake, you were dead certain I had discovered the aircraft and Charlie Smith’s bones. At that point you made an irreversible blunder: you panicked and removed Charlie, in all probability burying his bones deep in the mountains. If you’d left him strapped to that sunken cargo floor, the sheriff would have been hard pressed to tie you to a three-year-old murder.”

“You’ll pay hell proving anything,” Lee said, calmly relighting his cigar stub, “without a body.”